Oquawka, Illinois

Norma Jean

On July 17, 1972, a circus was in town. The main attraction of the Clark & Walter Circus was a 29-year-old elephant named Norma Jean. History records little of her background, except that she was born in the U.S. She was an Asian elephant, which have smaller ears and bodies than the African variety, and weighed 6,500 pounds (2,900 kg).

As nightfall approached, head elephant caretaker "Possum Red" tethered Norma Jean to a tree at the village park in the center of town, using a metal chain. Not long after, in rolled storm clouds. A bolt of lightning ripped through the sky and found Norma Jean's tree—the only one in the park. The voltage fired through the tree, along the metal chain, and into Norma Jean. Possum Red, who was still on the scene, was thrown 30 feet (10 m) by the electrical blast. Norma Jean thudded to the ground, lifeless. Possum Red and the rest of the circus scurried out of town. The following year, without its lone elephant—uninsured and worth the then-princely sum of $10,000—the circus folded.

Townsfolk used a backhoe to dig a 12-foot (3.7 m) hole, rolled the three-ton-plus pachyderm corpse into the grave and marked it with a plywood sign. After town druggist Wade Meloan had raised enough money to erect a memorial, he and a mason friend rounded up two tons of rock and cemented together a 5 feet (1.5 m) tall wall stretching 12 feet (3.7 m) over the grave. Atop the monument, they secured a concrete elephant statue and ringed the wall with flowers. They affixed a glass case to the wall with newspaper accounts about Norma Jean. The plaque on the wall proclaims:

“Norma Jean Elephant, Aug. 10, 1942 to July 17, 1972. This memorial is dedicated in memory of an elephant named Norma Jean, who was killed by lightning at this location and lies buried here.”

When they finished they invited hundreds of well-wishers to the dedication. They even rented a baby elephant to carry a wreath in its trunk to lay at the marker. Meloan became something of a sideshow barker for Norma Jean. He printed professional postcards of the memorial, selling them in Oquawka and beyond to drum up tourism. When reporters came calling, he'd gush over the lore of Norma Jean.

John Behnke, a graduate student from Southern Illinois University's cinema program, filmed a 15-minute documentary on the marker, which later appeared on the television network Showtime.^[5] By the mid-1990s, the site averaged two visitors a day. Tourism would get a boost when Oquawka would host a yearly fest to honor Norma Jean, with an elephant walk, white elephant sale and a bake sale featuring "elephant ears".

Meloan, Norma Jean's biggest supporter, died in 2004. Norma Jean has gone from a headline to a footnote. Hardly anyone stops by the grave anymore. A few years ago, unknown vandals destroyed the original elephant atop the memorial. The village got a replacement, but locals otherwise no longer pay much notice to the grave.^[6][7]

1993 Flood

During the month of July, The Flood of 1993 turned Oquawka into an island. There was no getting in, and no getting out. Oquawka, which sits above the Mississippi, for the most part stayed dry. The roads did not. Due to flash flooding of all the creeks, the town was cut off from the outside world for at least a day and a half.^[8]

2008 Flood

On the early morning of June 14, the town of Oquawka was evacuated, due to a levee breach along the swollen Iowa River. The city council believed this would affect the flood waters in the already flooding Mississippi River. The same day, two levees broke near the town of Keithsburg, Illinois, flooding the entire town.^[9]

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Oquawka had a population of 1,134. The median age was 50.2 years. 17.4% of residents were under the age of 18 and 25.5% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females, there were 93.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.6 males age 18 and over.^[12][13]

0.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.^[14]

There were 533 households in Oquawka, of which 17.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 40.3% were married-couple households, 22.1% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 28.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 39.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.^[12]

The population density was 609.68 inhabitants per square mile (235.40/km²). There were 621 housing units at an average density of 333.87 per square mile (128.91/km²), of which 14.2% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.7% and the rental vacancy rate was 15.8%.^[12]

Income and poverty

The median income for a household in the village was $40,898, and the median income for a family was $55,650. Males had a median income of $32,125 versus $29,531 for females. The per capita income for the village was $21,993. About 10.3% of families and 12.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.5% of those under age 18 and 4.1% of those age 65 or over.